The Oilers played a solid game that featured a comeback with just over a minute left; unfortunately the comeback lasted all of 40 seconds as the Stars put the Oilers away as the clock ticked down.

First Period

I continue to be amazed at Gene Principe’s pre-game introduction. Outstanding stuff; the man is pure gold.

Jacques plastered Sutherby with a big hit, and he, Pouliot and Stortini shove with the Star’s fourth line.

Nilsson with a surprisingly dangerous chance from the wrong side of the goal line; he flipped it into Turco’s skate and Turco just froze to keep the puck from moving.

Jason Strudwick was the guy who fell down, but Krys Barch lost the fight as Strudwick got a ton of shots in on Barch. Barch did well to step in after Strudwick probably should have got an elbowing penalty for a hit on Peters.

Trevor Daley powers a slap shot in from the point after Tom Gilbert turns the puck over. Pat Quinn shakes his head on the bench. 1-0 Dallas.

Shawn Horcoff takes a penalty for goaltender interference and Fernando Pisani takes one a moment later for hooking, giving Dallas a two minute 5-on-3. That’s pretty much a gift-wrapped goal for Dallas, but amazingly the Oilers manage to hang on and kill the penalty through a combination of good penalty-killing and strong work from Devan Dubnyk.

A moment later, Sam Gagner takes a holding penalty for reacting to a hit by hauling down the Stars forward.

Louie DeBruks: “They’ve struggled on the penalty kill as of late.” Yeah, if by “late” you mean the last two years.

With six seconds left in the Gagner penalty, Patrick O’Sullivan gets called for slashing on Jamie Benn. The Oilers kill off the last six seconds and then 30 seconds of the O’Sullivan penalty before Dubnyk freezes the puck.

Mike Modano scores with just over 50 seconds left on the Stars’ 35th power play. A team can only kill so many penalties.

The Oilers finally get a call as Krys Barch goes off for holding; the power play has barely started when Ryan Potulny bangs a goal home to make it 2-1 Dallas. Assists to Robert Nilsson and Dustin Penner.

Shots are now 17-4 in favour of the Dallas Stars.

Gagner gets a dangerous chance off a broken rush featuring him, Cogliano and Penner. After the faceoff, Denis Grebeshkov gets another shot that tests Turco, who seems shaky in net.

The Oilers with a vicious forecheck; in succession quick hits by Pouliot, Jacques and Stortini. The puck makes its way the other direction and the Stars get away with tripping Devan Dubnyk.

Pouliot really seems to have embraced his fourth line role; he’s as physically involved as I’ve ever seen him be and I wonder if he’s realized that he only has a tenuous grasp on an NHL career and needs to add every dimension he can. He was a gritty player in junior and if he can show that here it will only enhance his value.

Steve Ott takes a hooking penalty for spinning around Jason Strudwick, but the power play fails to convert before the clock runs out on the first period.

Second Period

No intermission commentary today; I’m in a hurry and I can’t remember the last time the Sportsnet panel was particularly useful.

Back and forth action to open the period but nothing especially interesting. Stortini made a brutal turnover to Brad Richards but got the puck back and moved it the other way.

Sam Gagner makes up for his earlier retaliation by drawing a penalty as he worked his way into the Dallas crease. Stephane Robidas hooked him after Gagner stole the puck from him.

Dallas takes another penalty after Steve Ott breaks Potulny’s stick in half after the slash, and the Oilers will now have a 5-on-3 for just over a minute. The good news is that the Stars’ penalty kill is almost as miserable as the Oilers.

Despite the Stars’ lousy penalty kill, the Oilers pass the puck around the perimeter and squander the 5-on-3, and then the 5-on-4 moments later.

Mark Fistric lowers the boom on Stortini as he skates in with the puck; great, clean hit on Stortini.

Taylor Chorney shows some lousy defensive awareness as Jamie Benn sneaks past him, and then takes the pass on the 2-on-1 and converts to make it 3-1 Dallas. Ugly play by Chorney.

Penner substituting for Stortini on the fourth line; I wonder how much that Fistric hit shook up Stortini, although the TV crew reads this as an attempt to get Penner going.

Great shift for the Horcoff line, which dominated the Stars’ first line and held the puck in the offensive zone while the Oilers changed lines.

Denis Grebeshkov for the second or third time makes a heart attack move with the puck, flubbing the pass and turning it over.

Stortini back out with the fourth line; apparently he’s fine. Pouliot takes the pass and does a great job getting the puck through to net; I’ve been very impressed by him since he has come back from injury.

Lubomir Visnovsky missed a wide open net on a play started by an epic Horcoff move; another fine shift for the third line.

Sam Gagner scores a moment later off nice passing plays by Penner and Gilbert; 3-2 Dallas.

Third Period

Taylor Chorney is not an NHL hockey player. Taylor Chorney is not an NHL hockey player. Taylor Chorney is not an NHL hockey player. I suppose I should explain; I said that once for each galring mistake Chorney made on his last shift.

Ethan Moreau offside by a little under three miles.

Speaking of 3 miles, that’s roughly how far out of net Marty Turco came to knock the puck away from Dustin Penner. Penner’s out with the fourth line again.

Ethan Moreau clears the puck, and as he’s doing it (accidentally) jams his stick up under the visor of Brad Richards. Richards is bleeding from what looks like just above his eye, and he was livid at Moreau. Somehow, Moreau avoided the four minute penalty he should have taken.

The Oilers are outhitting the Stars 2:1.

Potulny went down behind the net as Skrastins hooked Potulny in the face; somehow the referees missed that one too. Dodgy officiating tonight, but the breaks seem to be fairly even.

Ethan Moreau had a gorgeous chance after Pisani and Horcoff ragged the puck in the offensive zone, but was unable to convert.

Kevin Quinn just called Devan Dubnyk “the Big Easy.” I’m sure he’s been called that before but it feels like it’s been a while; I don’t know what it is but I’m not crazy about the nickname. I suppose it beets “Dubie.”

Great pressure with time winding down results in a goal; Sam Gagner scored this one. The roar of the crowd drowns out the announcer as he announces the goal and assists to Nilsson and Potulny.

Dallas scores with just over 20 seconds to go; Denis Grebeshkov inexplicably passes to Horcoff in traffic rather than clearing the puck; Horcoff lost it, and then Jason Strudwick fell over backwards while simultaneously flipping the puck directly on to Neal’s stick. Dubnyk falls to the ice after he realizes the shot has beat him.

Penner had a glorious chance with seconds left, but this one will go to Dallas 4-3.

Oilers Three Stars

1. Dustin Penner. Sam Gagner scored the goals, but Penner played the best game he’s played in quite a while and finished the night with two assists.

2. Sam Gagner. Like I said, two goals. Gagner didn’t play a perfect game, but he did play a good game and he made up for his mistakes.

3. Ryan Potulny. Managed two points, including the Oilers’ first goal, but finished with a minus-2 rating. He was fighting through checks all night and despite the ugly plus/minus I don’t recall him being bad defensively.

DFF Star: Jason Strudwick and Denis Grebeshkov both did their best to get on this list in the final minute of the game, but the award here goes to Taylor Chorney. Welcome to the team; poor positional play and bad giveaways will only aid the quest for a high-end pick.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including the Edmonton Journal, Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Watching the boys in the post game interviews was awful They all looked about ready to cry, scream and throw up just a little. I feel the same way and I'm only a fan. I don't know how much more anyone can take. Fans and palyers are going to have to have some major distraction before people start jumping off something way higher than a bandwagon.

I wonder if Strudwick is liking the idea of Taylor Hall as a team mate. Two Dallas goals off his stick. Tough night for 43. Chorney wasn't helping him any from what I saw (didn't catch the whole game) either.

Chorney was yet another bad callup. But we've over-extended our AHL reserves by so much its not even funny any more. In reality, there's nothing left in the reserve tank. I guess it comes down to the decision by management to blow off the season for a pick instead of opting to address obvious weaknesses by, you know, actually doing something.

I feel really bad for the players who are still trying to salvage some self-respect, especially when its pretty obvious management has hung them out to dry. I guess its all part of being a pro athlete, but still, it must really hurt.

Looking forward to Comrie getting back in next week. He'll be pretty ragged for a few games, but a far cry better than half the rubbydubs we have filling in NHL sweaters right now.

Chorney was yet another bad callup. But we've over-extended our AHL reserves by so much its not even funny any more. In reality, there's nothing left in the reserve tank. I guess it comes down to the decision by management to blow off the season for a pick instead of opting to address obvious weaknesses by, you know, actually doing something.

I feel really bad for the players who are still trying to salvage some self-respect, especially when its pretty obvious management has hung them out to dry. I guess its all part of being a pro athlete, but still, it must really hurt.

Looking forward to Comrie getting back in next week. He'll be pretty ragged for a few games, but a far cry better than half the rubbydubs we have filling in NHL sweaters right now.

What is it you suggest management do? You seem to think it's as easy as saying DO...what has Carolina done? The Leafs don't even have their own 1st rounder and what have they done? What has any team done for that matter that is out of the playoffs?

Do you have a magic wand to wave that will stock the lineup with players to help the Oil win a couple of games? The fact is there isn't much that can be done until closer to the trade deadline and this team shouldn't be trying to do things to add veterans unless they are vets that have contracts expiring at the end of this year and we sure as hell shouldn't be trading any future to obtain some older now guys...

So again, what is it you suggest be done? Any suggestions? You seem to think it's easy.

What is it you suggest management do? You seem to think it's as easy as saying DO...what has Carolina done? The Leafs don't even have their own 1st rounder and what have they done? What has any team done for that matter that is out of the playoffs?

Do you have a magic wand to wave that will stock the lineup with players to help the Oil win a couple of games? The fact is there isn't much that can be done until closer to the trade deadline and this team shouldn't be trying to do things to add veterans unless they are vets that have contracts expiring at the end of this year and we sure as hell shouldn't be trading any future to obtain some older now guys...

So again, what is it you suggest be done? Any suggestions? You seem to think it's easy.

*sigh*

I'm not talking about right now specifically, rather all the things we could have done in the past 6 months - the stuff we chose not to do instead of starting the season ridiculously weak in several areas, and relying heavily on prospects and callups to carry the mail.

These moves have been documented in every Oilers blog ad nauseum since the beginning of June. I'm not going into the juvenile HF boards practice of throwing out ridiculous fantasy trades at this point. There's enough of that crap on here already.

Phoenix resurrected themselves pretty nicely, so doing "something" wasn't out of the question. We chose not to this summer and continue to do so now. I have to assume there was a reason for that. Problem is, I'm sure some of the players are paying the price for those decisions. I feel bad for those players, real bad.

I'm not talking about right now specifically, rather all the things we could have done in the past 6 months - the stuff we chose not to do instead of starting the season ridiculously weak in several areas, and relying heavily on prospects and callups to carry the mail.

These moves have been documented in every Oilers blog ad nauseum since the beginning of June. I'm not going into the juvenile HF boards practice of throwing out ridiculous fantasy trades at this point. There's enough of that crap on here already.

Phoenix resurrected themselves pretty nicely, so doing "something" wasn't out of the question. We chose not to this summer and continue to do so now. I have to assume there was a reason for that. Problem is, I'm sure some of the players are paying the price for those decisions. I feel bad for those players, real bad.

Yes Phoenix has resurrected themselves, I agree and that example has been mentioned many times....another example that's been mentioned many times is Colorado...they've resurrected themselves nicely as well but they did it the way the Oilers are now...they had a very bad season last year and used the number 3 overall pick and the number 33 overall pick to add 2 key young players to their lineup who have both played huge roles in helping turn their team around. It's too late now to do anything for this year so the focus should be all about next year....let the boys play it out the best they can and recharge next year...

I suspect we are going to see a whole lot more moves between this years trade deadline and next season than we saw this past off season.

I HOPE we'll see some key moves this summer, but at this point I have pretty much zero confidence in this management group to make it happen. I also hope I'm dead wrong about that.

I guess all we can really do is sit back and wait to see what happens...if you think about it there isn't much time between now and the trade freeze (Feb 12) for the Olympics and there's only a few days after the Olympics so if anything is going to happen to begin the reshuffling it will likely be soon.

If the Oil chase one free agent this summer, I hope it's Steve Ott. Some bad penalties, but one heck of a player and just what this team needs. Definitely got my moneys worth last night, Gagner is awesome when he has his mojo going.

"The Big Easy" is looking better, he seems far more at ease then JDD. Sam G just keeps getting a little bit better as the year goes on. I believe at this age hes a far better player then his dad was. Why did Strudwick reach his stick out when Dubnyk had a clear view of the puck and why can't the forwards learn to deflect pucks like that. Lets call up another defence man from the farm, surely someone can play. Did Strudwick fall on the last goal or was he hauled down before he could react to the player in front. Looked to me like he was interferred with. Need to keep both Gags and Cogs.... It is so nice of the officals to be helping the DFF.

Last goal of the game Strudwick was the only oiler in position while it happened. It looked like he was hooked down but whatever. The sad part was our 10million dollar checking(shutdown) line was comparing wallet sizes(horcoff won) instead of covering the 3rd man in. Grebeshkov was at fault too. I hope he plays like that when Canada plays Russia. Kind of sad really that those are our defensive defensemen.

Strudwick by far had the worst game out of all the Oilers, followed by Jacques.

Felt bad for Dubnyk, the guy competes, just had bad breaks (2 by strudwick directly)

All 4 lines look good together, it will be interesting to see what changes when Comrie/Brule get back in the lineup and who all comes out? I'm hoping by that time Moreau will be traded and let Comrie take his spot on that checking line.

Grebs I felt played a pretty good game minus a couple bad plays, but he's always making those couple bad plays per game, its more or less how many he can limit himself too and what the end result is when he makes them.

Gilbert, nice pass! Its nice to see some offensive creativity coming back a bit over the last few games. Probably because you don't have guys on the ice that kill the play with guys that want to keep the puck (ie horc, penner, nilsson line)

All in all, the last 2 games have been probably the most entertaining to watch since the start of the year, was nice to see, and I personally can tolerate watching us lose games like that since we're going for a top pick. If we were competing for a playoff spot, it'd be a different story.

"The Big Easy" is looking better, he seems far more at ease then JDD. Sam G just keeps getting a little bit better as the year goes on. I believe at this age hes a far better player then his dad was. Why did Strudwick reach his stick out when Dubnyk had a clear view of the puck and why can't the forwards learn to deflect pucks like that. Lets call up another defence man from the farm, surely someone can play. Did Strudwick fall on the last goal or was he hauled down before he could react to the player in front. Looked to me like he was interferred with. Need to keep both Gags and Cogs.... It is so nice of the officals to be helping the DFF.

Strudwick fell clearing the puck away from a Dallas forward who was looking for a tip in. The fact that it went stright to Neal is hardly his fault, maybe if Grebeshkov tried backchecking after that horrid giveaway, things would have been different. If anyone deserves the blame on this it is Wanye's Goat.

Top 10 reasons why management cannot help the club get better . 1. They don't really know whats wrong to begin with / or how to assess it, 2. They move at the rate of a glacier with their heads buried in the ice , 3. Every deal they do make turns to crap and just makes matters worse , 4. They still have an uncompleted list of excuses they haven't used on the fans yet , 5. Their assessment of talent is markedly flawed - not to mention they live in a dream world thats more a nightmare that they have yet to wake up from , 6. Fans not vocal enough to invoke changes 7-10 i leave up to the rest of you to add to .In conclusion - i believe it's obvious by now that Management doing nothing has already proven beyond any doubt to be the worse case scenario .

Assuming we still have our 2 nd rounder this year, 31-33 overall sounds like Mark Pysyk territory, wonder if he'll still be around then. Watching the top prospects game, he could probably already be a top 4 here

How frequently does Quinn pick the wrong lineup in the final minutes of play in period, or game ,to insure we don't preserve a disaster ? It's not always the players fault,he needs to take more accoutability here !!

Gagner is sure seeming to be becoming what we all wanted. Hey at least we have 2 possitives this year, 3 if you count a top3 draft pick!!! It must be just an absolutely brutal feeling in the room these days, but I cannot wait to see what, if anything tambo can pull off as the deadline comes.

Top 10 reasons why management cannot help the club get better. In conclusion - i believe it's obvious by now that Management doing nothing has already proven beyond any doubt to be the worse case scenario .

Managment doesnt have many options; Horcoff must play with skilled players in order to be sucessful. when Smyth and Hemsky were on his wing they had beauty goals and points. Hes not coming back but this team finally has nowhene to go but up, and thats a start

Top 10 reasons why management cannot help the club get better . 1. They don't really know whats wrong to begin with / or how to assess it, 2. They move at the rate of a glacier with their heads buried in the ice , 3. Every deal they do make turns to crap and just makes matters worse , 4. They still have an uncompleted list of excuses they haven't used on the fans yet , 5. Their assessment of talent is markedly flawed - not to mention they live in a dream world thats more a nightmare that they have yet to wake up from , 6. Fans not vocal enough to invoke changes 7-10 i leave up to the rest of you to add to .In conclusion - i believe it's obvious by now that Management doing nothing has already proven beyond any doubt to be the worse case scenario .

top 1 reason why i dont give a ****. 1. you can't figure out how to use the f-ing enter button on your keyboard.

Managment doesnt have many options; Horcoff must play with skilled players in order to be sucessful. when Smyth and Hemsky were on his wing they had beauty goals and points. Hes not coming back but this team finally has nowhene to go but up, and thats a start

Your are right about options, so they have to making some. Deals to clear cap space will not be pretty, but must be done. Horcoff at his best is not good enough. He constipates the Oiler's development of younger player & now financially. Need Hemsky, but he needs help & four years of Shawn, has amount to four years out of the playoffs.

Years ago, watching a Vancouver game, I noticed Alex Auld, with "Auldy" painted on his mask

least imaginate athletes in the world.

Shorten first or last name to 1 syllable, and put an s or y or sy at the end

So many goalies go that route: Roli, Khabbie, Giggy, Manny, Wardo, Kipper, Turks, etc... The list goes on and on.

It's not always just a "y", but it's never very creative. And it you think you might have something better, you're out of luck - because they've already painted this boring nickname all over their mask to prevent anyone from coming up with anything else.

So many goalies go that route: Roli, Khabbie, Giggy, Manny, Wardo, Kipper, Turks, etc... The list goes on and on.

It's not always just a "y", but it's never very creative. And it you think you might have something better, you're out of luck - because they've already painted this boring nickname all over their mask to prevent anyone from coming up with anything else.

Goalies with boring nicknames? You're fit, for the Pit.

How about calling them by an entirely different name altogether? (re: Desjarlais, Du Maurier, etc.)

Speaking of maturing- hopefully as Gagner matures he learns to start his season as he finishes them. Seems to play great in the second half but it takes him 30-40 games to get going. If second-half Gagner, especially the Gagner we are watching right now, turns into all-season Gagner, we have ourselves a solid player.